The present invention is related to a floor conveyor with wheel arms.
In a certain type of floor conveyors, a pair of wheel arms is laterally attached to the frame of the floor conveyors, which bear load wheels at the front end. The wheel arms function to support the vehicle in the region of the load unit, i.e. to prevent the vehicle from being tilted towards the front.
In such floor conveyors, it is sometimes necessary to have a greater wheel gauge on the load side of the vehicle. For instance, when a pallet is to be taken out in a higher rack shelf level, but the wheel arms find no space on the floor into which they can advance, for instance because of a pallet standing transversely, it would be desirable to have a greater wheel gauge for the wheel arms. It is known to provide a respective wheel gauge for the wheel arms for special cases of utilisation. However, from this result changed requirements for the manufacture as well as for shipping as compared to standard vehicles of the same type. Such requirements are a materials expense, greater manufacturing expense as well as a more sumptuous assembly.
Different possibilities have already become known to change the wheel gauge of wheel arms in that the wheel arms are welded to the frame at different distances. However, this has the disadvantage that the wheel gauge can no more be changed afterwards and that due to the width, one has to deal with significantly more bulky vehicle frames in the manufacture and shipping. Moreover, wheel arms that are welded on are not replaceable when an error occurs, so that the entire vehicle frame is affected.
Another known possibility is realise the interface of the wheel arm in an adjustable manner, depending on the desired vehicle- or wheel gauge width, respectively. However, this has the disadvantage that the material for the broadest variant of the vehicle type must be present in the vehicle even at narrower vehicle models. Moreover, the adjustment of the accurate vehicle width is accompanied by an additional expense.
Finally, an individual type of wheel arm can be provided for different wheel gauges of a floor conveyor. Each of these wheel arm types can be installed on an interface on the vehicle frame or the lifting scaffold, respectively. This is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,138,796, the entire contents of which is incorporated herein by reference, for instance. However, in this realisation it is disadvantageous that two wheel arms are necessary for each demanded wheel gauge. This creates a high variance in the materials stockage.
The present invention is based on the objective to provide a floor conveyor which can be adjusted to different wheel gauges of the wheel arms with a small expense of material and installation.
The floor conveyor of this invention, with a frame on which a drive unit and a load unit are attached, the load unit having a load carrying means adjustable in its height, further with two parallel wheel arms which are adapted to be mounted on the outer sides of the frame, each wheel arm mounting one load wheel, and with means for reducing the distance of the wheel arms from each other, wherein a frame portion or a frame plate is fixedly connected to the frame on each outer side thereof, said frame portion or frame plate having an outer bearing surface and holes which result in a first hole pattern, wherein a wheel arm plate is connected to the wheel arms, which has first through bores resulting in a second hole pattern, and an inner bearing surface, wherein at least one pair of adapter blocks with third and fourth bearing surfaces and second through bores resulting in a third hole pattern is provided, first, second and third hole pattern being identical, wherein a first set of bolts for attaching the wheel arm plate on the frame portion or the frame plate and at least one second set of bolts for attaching the wheel arm plate on the frame portion or the frame plate by way of at least one adapter block at a time are provided, the first and second bearing surfaces bearing against each other or against the third or fourth bearing surface, respectively, of the adapter blocks.